Thursday, September 27, 2012

Sept. 24-30 | Your News & Comments: Part 4

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39 comments:

  1. Is this the best Sandra Micek can do? After a year and a half stage one lame expensive party for the "new" usat, pay tens of thousands to party planners and then make us the laughing stock of the industry and readers and to our clients.

    That's it? Now what? Anything else? Hello. Anybody home? What are our minions of supposed marketing experts doing? Besides filling empty advertising spaces with juvenile ads with our balls.

    Micek is paid how much as SVP Marketing of usat? What have you accomplished? What are you doing?

    As in years past, usat marketing continues to be ineffective, lazy, waste of resources and a joke to all of us. Micek is the same old story.

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  2. At almost 8 am my local Gannett paper has zero content on the front web page that wasn't there yesterday with the exception of a blurb about the NFL refs posted around midnight. Zero. Sadly, I pay for this.

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  3. ANOTHER Shreveport advertising employee has left Gannett and there are others about to follow behind him. With Bailey in charge of Shreveport, Haacker in charge of advertising and Hanisee in charge of revenue our ship is sinking FAST!

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  4. Let's hope the referee settlement ends the Wisconsin story orgy, but here is my vote for the dumbest stories.
    1. Story claims local businesses will lose millions of dollars if the Seattle loss denies the Packers home field advantage in the event they make the playoffs 14 games from now.
    2. Another story claims the debacle has so far had no effect on ticket prices. Huh? A team that has a 30-year waiting list for season tickets could see its fans walk away?

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  5. Hello 8:01 another ex marketing exec who just can't give it up. Sad really

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  6. I've dutifully followed this blog since its inception. I've regularly contributed funds. It was a really good place for news of the happenings at USA Today and at Gannett. Sadly, outright crazies and ultra-bitter people -- most of them apparently not even working anymore inside Gannett -- seem to have hijacked this blog's comments section. The comments now are mostly rants. Not useful to me. Not healthy for the mental states of the ranters. I'll check in once in awhile, searching for some nuggets of news. But I'm mostly moving on to Romenesko.

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  7. 9:35 MOVE ON there are some of us still at Gannett that think Jim is doing a wonderful job keeping us informed of the ways of Gannett...

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  8. 6:20 pm
    There already has been several hour delays. Holidays. In fact Newsgate often has a problem just when the people who need to approve pages need to be done with their job the system stops. The overtime this creates for these people must be insane. Just to wait for Newsgate to fix itself? There doesn't seem to be a back up plan or a work around. How will this change with Presteligence? No one is talking about this yet.

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  9. Has anyone else thought about how misleading Gannett's promotion of the "digital subscription model" has been?

    At my paper, the promotion says that a reader just gets 20 articles a month for free but then must buy a digital subscription.

    That's simply not true.

    The limit is 20 articles per month PER COOKIE.

    Each browser has a different cookie, so I can see 60 stories a month by using the three browsers on my computer. I have a different computer at home, so that's 60 more articles.

    Also, I can delete a cookie that has used up its 20 articles and get a new one with 20 more articles. I can do that as often as I want. Or I can use Google Chrome's incognito browser, which deletes all cookies when I close it. That lets me read 20 articles A DAY.

    I wonder what digital subscribers would think if they learned the truth about this. Personally, I'd feel that I have been ripped off.

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  11. 6:20 pm
    There already has been several hour delays. Holidays. In fact Newsgate often has a problem just when the people who need to approve pages need to be done with their job the system stops. The overtime this creates for these people must be insane. Just to wait for Newsgate to fix itself? There doesn't seem to be a back up plan or a work around. How will this change with Presteligence? No one is talking about this yet.

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  12. 10:01
    Perhaps this will fix the problem and 'fix' some more jobs also:

    http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Production/Article/Gannett-Selects-Presteligence-for-Prepress-Production-Workflow-Consolidation-Project

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  13. Martore & Dickey in Appleton today. Yaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnn.

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  14. 9:51: You missed the point. The 9:35 commenter doesn't have issue with Jim. It's with the comments section. The thoughtful comments seem to be drowned out by the haters. I agree.

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  15. 9:31 you are worse than any anti-Banikarim/Micek posts. You come here everyday looking for an opportunity to blame any negative marketing post on "ex-marketers". The first post about Micek does not sound like "ex-marketers" to me.

    Sounds like someone in the newsroom who is sick of marketers in general, past and present.

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    1. 10:32 no one outside of Tyson's gives a hoot about either one. No it's an ex marketing person, one we could name if Jim let us. It's the same rant over and over. Boring and pathetic.

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  16. THANK YOU 10:22, 10:37 et al!

    Your recent attempts to bring reality and focus to a discussion on real news that should be important to those presumably paid to provide it, is highly welcomed.

    Cutting staffs, devoting more energies to sports, entertainment, dare I write leaning political/news coverage and happy photos – lots of them, at the expense of presenting real, unvarnished news that once allowed newspapers to make their mark and become valued to readers has no doubt helped Gannett match declining revenues to appease investors, but in the end it’s still a downward spiral. Anyone who dares look can see it and it’s reinforced by how little media is trusted and valued today. Arguing that yes we're low, but rated higher than say TV still results in the same findings – significant trust and value has been lost.

    So, keep focusing on what’s easy, what aligns with long-held agendas all while ignoring a presentation of stories and straight facts of issues far greater than what unfortunately hits too many of this company’s' papers today at this company's peril.

    Frankly, for all the recent discussion of balls, what readers really want to see is stories and news that demonstrates Gannett newspapers still has them as too much of what is going on gets ignored, whitewashed or slanted, acts that really undermine what made this company, this industry.

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  17. Headline in today's Post-Crescent.

    "In his memory: Appleton family steps up to help raise awareness of Alzheimer's with Oct. 6 walk"

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  18. 10:02, just because you can get the digital content for free, doesn't mean that it's the right or legal thing to do. It's just like music file sharing at this point. If you're downloading music online and not paying for it, it's piracy, and it's still illegal. I haven't seen any legal threats to not paying for news content yet, probably because the providers and many of its customers are well aware of the back doors. I'm doing the same thing you are, although deep down I feel I should be paying for it, particularly when I know that some of my former colleagues' jobs probably depend on it. That said, having worked for Gannett for a dozen years and getting dumped on for a bunch of them, I somehow can't muster the desire to give them money.

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  19. 9:35, YOUR LOSS

    Dude, these are frickin' hard times. GCI and the newspaper industry had a near-death experience. How do you think the average person would react?

    Yeah, there are a lot of people here who ought to get a life.

    So? BFD! Ever really been inside D.C.? That's how and why those peoples blow themselves up -- their whole world involves an imagined life. Instead of a real one, with wins, losses, plans, diverse paths, and exit plans.

    So, leave. You'll miss stuff like the wacky new CFO and her multiple jobs, potlucks, and Banana-gate. Your loss, dude.

    And no, I am not Jim's mommy. I have sent Jim money. (And for the record, being diversified financially, I have very small holdings in GCI. Also in the Caymans and Asia. Everyone with a brain does. Duh.)

    Jim (and all of us) is/are not perfect. All of us can be replaced. None of us have a lock on "the truth" and "facts." Some of us are better writers. Some of us are better CPAs. And there is only one "Big Al."

    So -- do something great. We're waiting.

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  20. I have no problem paying for digital content. I subscribe to two newspapers on line but neither one are Gannett products. It has to be a decent product and Gannett doesn't offer anything I am willing to buy.

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  21. The problem lies with Maryam Banikarim and all of her minions that she brings along. tehre was a great animated movie called "Despicable Me", but in that movie, the villain actually had a heart in the end. This woman is all about climbing the ladder and destroying anything in her path.

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  22. 12:58 is a basket case. The strained logic, the reference to peoples, the lame denials -- all are signs of mental disorder.

    I almost have to think Jim is behind that post.

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  23. M.B. HALF-LIFE - 18 MONTHS

    M.B. knows the CMO's shelf-life is like that of 007's -- brief, violent and painful. The only places CMOs have some stability are (duh) at the marketing powerhouses -- Coke, P&G, IBM.

    GCI is, obviously, NOT a marketing powerhouse. Always someone to say, "that's stupid" or "why bother?" Only GCI CMO to win was Big Al, and that was a long time ago.

    GCI's walking a very high, very thin, tightrope. Good freakin' luck. Quarterly report due within two weeks -- good freakin' luck.

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  24. I subscribe to a Gannett paper online. I use my dad's print subscription to do so. Dad will never use a computer. But the Gannett paper lost two to three dollars per week that I used to plunk down for single copy.

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  25. Shreveport is a mess. We need good leadership again. I thought L & L would fix it but I now see that ain't gonna happen. WTF?

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  26. IF AP's still running the newsroom in Shreveport, it will stay a mess.

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  27. So I hear employees at The Clarion-Ledger can't take vacation days unless they make goal! Is that even legal? Any other papers dangling the benefits carrot in front of employees?

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  28. You take your vacation at the pleasure of the company.

    There is no constitutional right to fail at your job and still get benefits. Though if you're unionized it comes pretty darn close to it.

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  29. 2:12, lame is the sports department, filled with a few full-timers and a lot of "correspondent" wanna-be types being exploited by GCI.

    That's sad, depressing, and kind of useless. Like sweeping shit after the circus elephants and thinking you're a performer.

    Never met a sports full-timer who couldn't be replaced easily. When you get 300 resumes for one job -- NBD.

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  30. Rights and vacations. Hell, in my tenure I saw the company change the way vacations are earned in midstream. Always at the expense of the employee, and always not apprised. Well, that's fine — it's a company. But it should at least have communicated that change. Oh, wait, that would involve respect for the workforce.

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  31. Oh my god, it's not just our sports department?

    You'd think our sports trolls' shit didn't stink the way they strut around our major-league-team city. They cry the most when ads are put on their pages, insist that they bring in all the readership and then whine when the rest of the staff doesn't recognize their great talent.

    Hey, guess what guys - your coverage is a commodity, and only the high school agate you hate sets our site apart from a thousand other sports sites.

    Put on long pants when you come to work if you want us to take you seriously. And shut up.

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  32. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. Here's your chance at that Pulitzer you've been dreaming of.

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  33. 3:41 if you worked in Shreveport newsroom you would know the mess doesn't rest with AP. Put blame on the shoulders of Crystal Palace. ... Agree with earlier post though... Shreveport is a sinking ship.

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  36. 10:18 whatever Jim's blog is...people certainly flock to it.
    Gossip and all.

    Same reasons people watch the Kardashians, read People, and enjoy USAToday which is light on news and heavy on graphics.

    Most of America would rather be entertained than informed.

    Sad.

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  37. I believe it is illegal to deny an employee his benefits explained in the handbook. If the company is sued, the company would lose. The company is betting no one would file a law suit, thus the company, or members of the company, can do as they please. The company is playing Russian Roulette

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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